Investing in the American Dream

from The Gray Area:

If you ever hear anyone say the American Dream is dead, have them read the story below. “anyone who studied hard and worked hard could be successful” in America. This is a quote from a woman from Japan who brought her family here in 1957.

Whether you make it yourself or set the groundwork for future generations of your family, this is the formula for success in a country with opportunity for all – who will apply themselves.

If our government will stop creating a welfare state in this country, the American Dream will continue to be alive and well into the future.

More From Maudlin Economics, By Tony Sagami:

Investing in the American Dream

My mother and I journeyed to the United States from Japan in 1957.

Our long, two-month trip on a slow naval transport ship must have been frightening to my then 20-year-old mother. But she was eager to start a new life in America… a place where anyone who studied hard and worked hard could be successful.

I was less than two years old when my parents divorced in 1957. My 20-year-old Japanese mother suddenly found herself living in a strange country with no family, friends, money, food or place to live.

Yet instead of returning to Japan where her family and friends were, she scratched, rummaged and scavenged enough to make a new life for us in the US. Why?

My mother knew that a half-Japanese, half-American child had limited opportunities in Japan. It wasn’t like it is today; the wounds from World War II were too fresh. I would have never gone to a top university or landed a top job.

Even though my mother barely spoke English and seldom had more than two nickels to rub together, she fiercely held to the idea of the American dream. “In America, anybody can get rich if they work hard,” she told me.

And she was determined to have me prove her right.

Putting the “Earn” in “Learn”

My mother ordered me to sit in the front row directly in front of the teacher’s desk. She gave me almost daily lectures on the importance of education and punished me severely if I brought home anything less than an A. My mother was a big believer in corporal punishment, and I got the spankings of my life for anything less than straight A’s.

Those lectures and demands for academic excellence from my mother paid off for my siblings, my children and me. …